01/25/2026
Good Morning WABC family.
Because of the snow and ice that has accumulated, we have cancelled in person services today (01-25-2026). Below you will find a semi-manuscript of the sermon that would’ve been preached from the pulpit today. I trust you all stay warm and safe.
Title: Returning to Bethel
Scripture Text: Genesis 35
Introduction: The God Who Calls Us Back
“God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there.’”
Jacob has been busy. He has been blessed. He has become prosperous. He has a household, children, flocks, servants. But he has also drifted. He is no longer where he first met God.
Bethel was not new ground. Bethel was the place of the ladder, the angels ascending and descending, the place where Jacob first said, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”
And now God says, in effect: Go back. Go home. Return.
I. Bethel Is a Place of Encounter, Not Convenience
Bethel was not chosen because it was comfortable. Jacob did not meet God there because he planned it. He was running for his life, sleeping on a stone, exhausted and afraid.
That is often where God meets us.
Bethel is the place where God interrupts our plans. Bethel is where God names us, not where we name ourselves. Bethel is where God makes promises that unsettle us.
And notice—God does not say, “Remember Bethel.” He says, “Go to Bethel.”
Many of us remember a Bethel:
•A season when prayer was alive
•A time when Scripture burned within us
•A moment when God felt near and real
But memory alone does not sustain faith. God calls us not to remember encounter—but to return to it.
II. Before Returning to Bethel, Jacob Must Clean House
Jacob’s first act of obedience is not travel—it is repentance.
“Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.”
This is striking. These idols are not Jacob’s, but they are in his household. Rachel’s stolen gods. The foreign charms. The compromise tolerated.
Jacob had learned to live with what God never approved.
Before worship comes renunciation.
Before encounter comes cleansing.
Before Bethel comes burial.
Jacob buries the idols under the oak at Shechem. He does not store them. He does not rationalize them. He does not keep them “just in case.” He buries them.
You cannot return to Bethel while carrying the gods you picked up along the way. Some idols are obvious. Some are respectable. Some are religious.
But all of them must go.
III. The God Who Protected Jacob Still Protects Him
Jacob fears retaliation. His household is vulnerable. But Scripture tells us:
“A terror from God fell upon the cities around them.”
Jacob’s obedience does not make him weaker, it places him under divine protection.
There is a lie we often believe: If I fully obey God, I will lose control.
But Genesis 35 reveals the opposite:
•God protects what He commands
•God guards what He calls
•God secures the obedience He requires
Jacob’s safety is found in surrender.
IV. At Bethel, God Repeats the Promise
When Jacob arrives, God does not rebuke him.
He does not rehearse his failures.
He does not demand explanation.
God renews the covenant.
“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.”
God reminds Jacob who he is, before Jacob forgets again.
This is grace.
God speaks identity before expectation.
God gives promise before command.
God blesses before He sends.
Returning to Bethel is not about shame, it is about remembrance.
V. Bethel Includes Loss as Well as Blessing
Genesis 35 is not sentimental. Rachel dies. Deborah dies. Pain is not erased by this obedience.
Returning to Bethel does not mean life becomes easy. It means life becomes faithful.
God is present not only in triumph, but in grief.
Not only in promise, but in burial.
The same chapter that renews blessing also records tears.
Faithfulness does not protect us from sorrow, but it anchors us within it.
Arise, Go Up to Bethel
Genesis 35 ends with Jacob standing where he once slept in fear, now worshiping in trust.
The same God who met him in flight meets him again in obedience.
God still calls His people back:
•Back to prayer
•Back to holiness
•Back to first love
•Back to obedience
Not because He has changed, but because we have wandered away.
So hear the Word of the Lord:
Arise. Go up to Bethel. Dwell there.
Return—not to who you were, but to who God called you to be.
